The smooth surfaces in ℙ4 with few apparent triple points

Abstract

We classify smooth complex projective surfaces in [Formula: see text] with [Formula: see text] apparent triple points, thus recovering and extending the results of Ascione [Sulle superficie immerse in un [Formula: see text], le cui trisecanti costituiscono complessi di [Formula: see text] ordine, Atti Accad. Naz. Lincei Rend. Cl. Sci. Fis. Mat. Natur.[Formula: see text]5[Formula: see text] 6 (1897) 162–169] and Severi [Intorno ai punti doppi impropri di una superficie generale dello spazio a quattro dimensioni, e a’ suoi punti tripli apparenti, Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo 15 (1901) 33–51] for [Formula: see text], Marletta [Le superficie generali dell’ [Formula: see text] dotate di due punti tripli apparenti, Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo 34 (1912) 179–186] for [Formula: see text], and Aure [The smooth surfaces in [Formula: see text] without apparent triple points, Duke Math. J. 57 (1988) 423–430] for [Formula: see text]. This is done thanks to a new projective character that can be introduced as a consequence of the main result of [K. Ranestad, On smooth plane curve fibrations in [Formula: see text], in Geometry of Complex Projective Varieties, Sem. Conf., Vol. 9 (Mediterranean, 1993), pp. 243–255; J. C. Sierra and A. L. Tironi, Some remarks on surfaces in [Formula: see text] containing a family of plane curves, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 209 (2007) 361–369; V. Beorchia and G. Sacchiero, Surfaces in [Formula: see text] with a family of plane curves, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 213 (2009) 1750–1755]. Going a bit further, we obtain some bounds on the Euler characteristic [Formula: see text] in terms of the degree [Formula: see text] and the sectional genus [Formula: see text] of a smooth surface in [Formula: see text]. For [Formula: see text], these bounds were first obtained in [A. B. Aure and K. Ranestad, The smooth surfaces of degree [Formula: see text] in [Formula: see text], in Complex Projective Geometry, London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series, Vol. 179 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992), pp. 32–46; K. Ranestad, On smooth surfaces of degree [Formula: see text] in the projective fourspace, Ph.D. thesis, Oslo (1988); S. Popescu, On smooth surfaces of degree [Formula: see text] in the projective fourspace, Dissertation, Saarbrücken (1993)]. Here we give a different argument based on liaison that works also for [Formula: see text] and that allows us to determine the triples [Formula: see text] of the smooth surfaces with [Formula: see text] apparent triple points.